---The Rail Australia Map has reached the ‘Final Forge’ Stage. I've revived this thread from the pits of the Foundry Furnace (okay, maybe not) and have examined the contents. Nearly every major concern has been addressed. If there are any other current concerns, please make your voice heard. If after a reasonable amount of time there has not been any objection or protest, the map will be deemed finished with the 'Foundry Brand' of approval and will be submitted for live play. As long as there is still discussion or posts that have yet to be commented on, the map will remain in Final Forge until said discussion has reached the conclusion that the map has reached its final and polished version.

yeti_c wrote:Great work Cairns.FF here we come for yet another Cairns map... closing in on the 20 at full speed!!C.

yeti_c wrote:Hmmm - I'm not sure I like the new legend in the top left...Why? - I'm not sure - but it all seems a little - er - busy? or contrived? I'm not sure - but basically - something seems a bit off!!C.

Changed your mind then, have you? The first comment was posted just after the signals appeared in V25 "on Sat Oct 18, 2008 7:30 pm "

Hmm.....I kind of agree with yeti when I think about it. Perhaps get rid of that wood/medal "P" shaped thing. If you don't want to get rid of it, try pushing it towards the background/blended in more and make the signal boxes around the text "pop" a bit more.

Night Strike wrote:Hmm.....I kind of agree with yeti when I think about it. Perhaps get rid of that wood/medal "P" shaped thing. If you don't want to get rid of it, try pushing it towards the background/blended in more and make the signal boxes around the text "pop" a bit more.

i reduced the opacity of the gantry in both versions, and increased the opacity of the signals a little.

Unless you've changed the coordinates since the posts above, some on the small map look a bit higher than others... all of the numbers have a pixel between them and the top line except ORG, CBA, NWC, and SYD... and maybe WRK? The funny thing is that they don't look high off the bottom, so maybe those boxes are somehow smaller?

oaktown wrote:Unless you've changed the coordinates since the posts above, some on the small map look a bit higher than others... all of the numbers have a pixel between them and the top line except ORG, CBA, NWC, and SYD... and maybe WRK? The funny thing is that they don't look high off the bottom, so maybe those boxes are somehow smaller?

The large map is more forgiving, but NWC looks off.

Please refesh your browser, those changes have been made.

Version 283 stations have been removed from NSWRail to offer less clutter in that state...i think this works better and the bonuses for NSWRail have been changed.

though it's very late in the day, would u consider starting hobart with 2 neutrals to avoid player 1 starting with the tasrail bonus and, with reference to my previous comment about the long-distance bonuses being too low to affect play, doubling the countrylink, ghan and indian pacific bonuses to +4, +6 and +8 respectively?

though it's very late in the day, would u consider starting hobart with 2 neutrals to avoid player 1 starting with the tasrail bonus and, with reference to my previous comment about the long-distance bonuses being too low to affect play, doubling the countrylink, ghan and indian pacific bonuses to +4, +6 and +8 respectively?

ian.

i have no objection to doubling the bonuses for the long distance trains if needed, but have you read through the thread to see why they are at that level? I think this was determined at some length throughout the process. Don't know about the Tasrail bonus, even though i understand why it could change. I'd prefer to let this one go through and see if there are any consequences.

although i don't actually recall much discussion on the matter, i understand the reasoning behind why the sundowner bonus and, to some extent, the ghan bonus, are small. however, countrylink has stations in three states for +3 and indian pacific looks virtually impossible to hold (and therefore likely to be ignored) for a niggardly +4.

as for tasrail, the map has 61 starting territories, so there will always be at least 1 starting neutral. why not put that neutral in a place where it'll actually be doing some good, in other words hobart?

where a route links two states, have u experimented with having half of it in one colour and half in the other (with maybe some sort of transition colouring in the middle), to avoid giving the impression that a station (for example brisbane, which is connected to newcastle by nsw-coloured dots) is part of both state systems?

iancanton wrote:although i don't actually recall much discussion on the matter, i understand the reasoning behind why the sundowner bonus and, to some extent, the ghan bonus, are small. however, countrylink has stations in three states for +3 and indian pacific looks virtually impossible to hold (and therefore likely to be ignored) for a niggardly +4.

Personally I'm alright with the low bonuses for the longer routes. If this were a purely classic style map, of course I would push to make a 12 territory bonus more generous than +4, but nobody is going to be starting the game and going after those long routes as their initial foray into picking up extra armies. More likely, the long routes are going to be gravy bonuses for somebody who already has some meat and potatoes bonuses. For example, once a player has wrapped up Ausrail for +4, they only need to grab an additional, and very linear, four additional territories to hook up another +3. Seems too generous to give the Ausrail player another +6 for getting four more territories.

iancanton wrote:as for tasrail, the map has 61 starting territories, so there will always be at least 1 starting neutral. why not put that neutral in a place where it'll actually be doing some good, in other words hobart?

I always go back and forth with making half of a two territory region a bonus, because while on the one hand it keeps somebody from getting it on the drop, but in this case it means only one player really has a chance of going after the region because nobody else can attack HBA other than the LNC player. Ian's point about the map having 61 territories may push me into the camp of starting HBA neutral.

iancanton wrote:although i don't actually recall much discussion on the matter, i understand the reasoning behind why the sundowner bonus and, to some extent, the ghan bonus, are small. however, countrylink has stations in three states for +3 and indian pacific looks virtually impossible to hold (and therefore likely to be ignored) for a niggardly +4.

as for tasrail, the map has 61 starting territories, so there will always be at least 1 starting neutral. why not put that neutral in a place where it'll actually be doing some good, in other words hobart?

where a route links two states, have u experimented with having half of it in one colour and half in the other (with maybe some sort of transition colouring in the middle), to avoid giving the impression that a station (for example brisbane, which is connected to newcastle by nsw-coloured dots) is part of both state systems?

ian.

Thanks for input oaktown, but i think the below answers your comments.

Ian...Bonuses1. Hobart - > now starts neutral2. Sunlander (not Sundowner) i think is best remaining at +2 since it is contained whole within in qld and would raise that state bonus to +11 - 5 sstations3. XPT has been raised to +3 cross states - 6 stations4. The Ghan is now at +4 - 9 stsations5. Indian-Pacific has been raised to +5 - 13 stations

As to the colours, no i hadn't thought of transitioning them, and would prefer they remain as is.graphically i don't there is anything to be gained here, and more represents the different guages in each state.